


New Crew in Town

by MythsAndMythos



Category: Rooster Teeth/Achievement Hunter/Funhaus RPF
Genre: 2Spooky, Alcohol, Fake AH Crew, Gang War, Police officers, a LOT of alcohol, cheesemaster
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-01-20
Updated: 2017-01-20
Packaged: 2018-09-18 17:37:18
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 12,094
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9395966
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/MythsAndMythos/pseuds/MythsAndMythos
Summary: “Hey Boss, you seen this?” Michael asked as he flung a wrinkled, damp newspaper on the table. The pages fanned out as they slid towards Geoff, who calmly lifted his coffee mug out of the way and continued staring at his phone with sleepy eyes.There's a new crew in town and it's a race between the Fakes and the Cops to find out who they are.





	

“Hey Boss, you seen this?” Michael asked as he flung a wrinkled, damp newspaper on the table. The pages fanned out as they slid towards Geoff, who calmly lifted his coffee mug out of the way and continued staring at his phone with sleepy eyes.

It was early enough in the day that it was still reasonable for him to be in the waking up stage of his morning. Michael himself was an early riser, and was often up and out of the penthouse before the first signs of the sun. Geoff took a more leisurely approach to the day, waking around 9 and slowly caffeinating himself into a conscious state.

“No Michael, what is it?” He drawled emotionlessly, drinking deeply from his mug.

Michael snorted and grabbed the phone out of his boss’ weak grip, ignoring the whine of protest it elicited. “Maybe you should look at the paper and see what I’m talking about. Whatever dumb game you’re playing can wait until later.”

Geoff sighed but dragged the crinkled pages towards him and attempted to stack them in some sort of order. It was unnecessary though, because the front page had a giant black and white photo of two blurry figures in front of a burning building, and a bolded headline that proclaimed _New Crew In Town!_

“What’s this shit?” His voice squeaked through his exclamation as he picked through the pile of pages, looking for the one with the article.

Michael grabbed the mug while Geoff was distracted and drained it, ignoring the 3:1 whiskey to coffee ratio. “I don’t know man. Article just says there’s a new crew trying to set up shop in the neighborhood. Whoever they are, Risinger thought they were interesting enough to write about, and you know how picky that guy is with his stories.” Geoff hummed in agreement as he skimmed the article. “It took us months of insane heists and subtle stalking to even get mentioned in the paper by the guy. You should read the article, it’s sickening how awesome he makes the crew sound. According to Risinger they just started moving into the big leagues and so far all he knows is that they tend to do stupid shit with large amounts of alcohol.” 

“Hey! Large amounts of alcohol is my thing!” Geoff whined, attention caught by that bit of information shared by Michael. 

Michael rolled his eyes, “Yes Geoff, I know that, we all know that. Maybe you should focus on the problem at hand where there’s a new crew moving in on our turf and we know nothing about them!” Geoff continued reading, tuning out the volume of his explosives expert. “Ryan’s already out trying to shake people down for information, but you should probably put at least the support team on investigating these dickheads, or see if Gavin can get any info out of his database network.”

Geoff leant back and tossed the paper back on the table, arms crossed as he contemplated the newest development in city crew politics. The Fake’s had run the city for the past few years with little to no interference. Any crew that popped up was quickly squashed or strongly encouraged to find new turf, and the cops either couldn’t catch them or couldn’t get anything to stick on them. 

“Alright,” Geoff said, standing up and grabbing his empty mug from Michael. “Crew meeting in 10, get everyone back here and in the planning room.”

Michael exited the room with a brief, “You got it Boss.” He started typing a mass text to the crew before he was out the door and his screams for Gavin echoed through the halls as he went looking for the other member of the crew who was still in the penthouse.

Geoff sighed, rubbing his inked fingers over his face and trudging back to the kitchen for a fresh mug of coffee and a splash of the nearest liquor to prepare himself for what was going to be a tiring day. The kitchen was strangely clean when you knew who actually lived in the house. No dirty dishes were in the sink and there was only one box of open cereal left on the counter. The coffee pot was almost empty, but had been made earlier in the day either by Michael when he woke up or Ryan when he didn’t fall asleep. 

As he puttered around the kitchen, Geoff picked up an apple from the fruit bowl and on his way out he grabbed the paper from the table. The pages were mostly dry and the ink had only run a little, making some of the words smudgy and difficult to read. He tucked it under his arm and shuffled towards the room where he’d have to spend the next few hours corralling his rowdy bunch of idiots. 

It took 20 minutes for the other 5 main crew members to arrive and settle into the planning room. Michael and Gavin had been in the house when the call went out and now they were well into a discussion on the logistics of some impossible feat Gavin wanted Jeremy to try, while Jeremy was looking desperately for a way out of the conversation. He had turned up quickly after receiving the text, returning from the racetrack in his purple and orange suit and with an extra stack of cash. 

Jack must have been nearby too because she strode into the room not 5 minutes after Michael called her, looking determined and focused with at least some awareness of the situation. She was the only one patiently waiting for Geoff to start the meeting instead of adding on to the lads’ debate. Ryan had only just arrived, hair disheveled from his motorcycle and face paint still fresh, but he easily fell into the discussion on what dumb thing they could make Jeremy do next and quietly contributed his own sadistic ideas.

“Alright you fucks,” Geoff finally shouted, making himself heard above the squawks Gavin let out as Jeremy finally pushed him out of his chair to make him give up on the idea of climbing the maze bank with plungers. “We have a situation.”

The crew quieted as Geoff settled into his ‘Boss’ persona and took control. He ripped the photograph from the front page of the newspaper and taped it to the board behind him, while passing the page with the story around the room.

“Now, it has been brought to my attention.” Here Michael pointedly cleared his throat. “Yeah yeah, it has been brought to my attention _by Michael_ that there’s a new crew on the move. We don’t know what they want yet but that doesn’t mean they aren’t dangerous. They could either be aiming to take us down, which will never happen, or they could just be looking for attention. Regardless, we need information on them and we need it now.”

"I was out trying to find any connections to them,” Ryan rumbled from the corner. “Seems like they’re a fairly new crew, no one knows anything. Our reliable contacts were just as surprised as we were that there’s a new group starting up. If I had the time I could hunt down the obscure informers, but I don’t know how helpful anyone else would be.”

“Right.” Geoff jotted down some notes on Ryan’s report on the white board behind him, scrawling ‘UNKNOWN’ in his chicken scratch handwriting. “So the usual people in the city are useless, that’s why I want some research done. I’m gonna put the support team on it but Gavin.” At his name the brit perked up and paid attention. “I want you snooping through every site and database you’ve hacked, find me something on them.”

The lad nodded, hair flopping in his face. “You got it Geoffrey. Just one thing though, who are they?”

Everyone stared silently at him and Geoff replied with an eye roll. “We don’t know idiot, that’s why we need you to dig up information.”

“I’m not stupid.” Gavin huffed. “I mean, is there a crew name, or individual, or even appearance I can search for besides potential people with criminal records who might possibly form a crew in the Los Santos area?”

At this everyone paused. “Well shit” Jack muttered. 

Geoff shook his head, “We’ve got nothing except what Risinger made public knowledge. Just do your best buddy.”

Gavin sighed and settled back into his chair, mind already whirling as he made and discarded plans of which cites to hack. Michael patted his shoulder before turning his attention back towards Geoff who was pulling at his hair, turning it into an even bigger mess than usual. 

“So with Gavin and support on computer research, and Ryan on potential personal connections, I need the rest of you doing something useful. I can’t have you getting arrested for the usual stupid shit, so no unnecessary crime.”

There was an outburst from the lads at that. The general consensus seemed to be that it was unfair to expect them, hardened criminals, to start following laws just because of some upstart crew, although Gavin’s main point was that it was never his fault. Ryan just nodded silently, which Geoff took to mean that any crime on his part would be untraceable as always. 

“Would you shut up!” Jack finally snapped, rubbing her temples. “This isn’t a problem right now but it could easily become a major issue. We don’t need your impulsive tendencies adding to the situation.”

“But Jack –” Jeremy didn’t even get to finish before she had fixed him with a withering glare. His voice, and any complaints he might have had, quickly died in his throat. 

“Anyway,” Geoff continued. “Assignments for the rest of you. Michael and Jeremy, see if the cops know anything. I doubt they can actually do their jobs well enough to find something we missed, but they might have had some interactions with this new crew. Jack and I will monitor everything, stabilize our assets, and make sure this crew doesn’t do anything too dangerous to our empire. Everyone good?”

They all nodded their assent. 

“Good, let’s go!” At Geoff’s signal they jumped into a flurry of movement. Everyone grabbed what they needed and moved to their own space in order to focus and dig something up on the mystery that was this crew.

-.-.-.-.-.-.-

That night they returned to the penthouse to eat and relax after a day of useless searching. None of them had been successful. Jeremy and Michael hadn’t found a way into the police information files yet and Gavin was equally useless on his end. Everyone Ryan questioned gave the same answer, that they had no knowledge on the new crew, and he was frustrated with this perceived failure. 

Jack was in the kitchen trying to make sure nothing was destroyed by the lads as they ‘cooked’ dinner. The kitchen had turned into a war zone as the lads were screaming at each other thinking they each had the ‘perfect recipe’ and better techniques, and the others were clearly doing it wrong. Jack wasn’t worried about dinner since she already called for pizza to be delivered, although she was concerned about Jeremy’s safety when he started attempting to (poorly) juggle knives. 

In the living room, Ryan and Geoff had settled into comfortable silence. There was a large television in the center of the wall, but each of the crew members had contributed to the wide range of seating that surrounded it. There was the simple leather recliner in the corner, which Ryan was curled up in reading a novel and relaxing after the stressful day. There were also a couple of spotted love seats and one large couch that Geoff was planted in the middle of, watching the news with fresh bottle of his favorite whiskey.

The sound of explosions and a shaky camera were suddenly projected on the screen and Geoff froze, eyes locked on the strange sight. “Hey Ryan…” He got a grunt in reply from the man. “Are they…are they wearing kigurumis?”

At this, Ryan looked up blinking owlishly at his boss. He looked back and forth between Geoff and the screen before turning back to his book. “Yeah, and aviator glasses.”

“Alright, just glad you see it too.”

“Mhmmm,” Ryan hummed from his corner. “For once it’s not alcohol induced hallucinations.”

“Nah, the guy with the sparkly skull under a hoodie is definitely a figment of my whiskey fueled imagination.” Geoff said as he settled back into the couch, cradling his tumbler of whiskey and staring in awe at the obviously buff man with a sweatshirt pulled over his face and a green skull settled on his head.

“Nope, that guy’s real too.” Ryan said with peaking interest, turning the page of his book slowly.

“Well shit on my dick, these guys go all out.” Geoff muttered before craning his head in the direction of the kitchen. “Hey assholes, get out here and check out our competition!”

There was the sound of clattering pans and silverware falling to the floor as the lads scrambled to see what was going on. They gathered behind Geoff’s couch in front of the television just in time to see the screen cut in to the newsroom.

“We go now live to the scene, where a group of disguised individuals are in the process of robbing an offshoot branch of the Maze Bank.” The blonde woman in the newsroom stated seriously before the camera cut to the field reporter.

The man standing in front of the camera looked panicked as an explosion rocked the ground he stood on. He tightly grasped his microphone and attempted to speak to the newsroom, but it was drowned out by the sirens, explosions, and yelling. Suddenly, one of the men involved in the robbery sauntered up to the terrified reporter and snatched the microphone out of his sweaty hands. 

“Shout out to journalist Jon Risinger for the publicity!” The man in the Umbreon kigurumi shouted at the camera as he threw a grenade over his shoulder at the bank. “Although he did forget to include our name. Pikachu, what are we called?”

A look of confusion crossed Michael’s face. “Does anyone else think his voice sounds super familiar?” He was quickly shushed by the rest of the crew as they focused with intensity. “No seriously, I’ve definitely heard him before.” 

“Michael boi be quiet, we’ve got to listen.” Gavin whispered and flailed his arm in Michael’s face in an attempt to shut the other lad up. 

Another man, dressed in a Pikachu outfit, stumbled to Umbreon’s side and tried to throw his arm around the taller man’s shoulders. “We’re 2Spooky! 2Spooky Crew!”

The man with the glittering skull sticking out of his hood fell into frame waving a bright silver gun and shouting “Spooky!!” although it was muffled by his shirt.

“That’s right,” Umbreon exclaimed while hoisting a bag of cash onto his shoulder. “Because we’re too spooky for you! Write about that Risinger!”

When the man had finished talking, two more men came running out of the bank throwing smoke grenades. There was the sound of squealing tires and when the smoke finally cleared, all that was left were coughing cops, tire marks burnt into the road, and a bewildered reporter staring blankly at the microphone which had somehow been shoved back into his hand. The crew had vanished along with a half-million in cash and the reporter on the scene quickly threw it back to the newsroom.

Geoff muted the television as they moved on to a discussion on the local charity fundraiser, and there was silence among the Fakes until Jack broke their stupor. “Well,” Jack muttered, “I guess we have more research to do.”

“At least I have a name to go off of now,” Gavin mumbled, still staring blankly at the screen. “What did they say their name was?”

Ryan stood up suddenly, his forgotten novel tumbled off his lap onto the floor. “2Spooky. That’s what they said.”

“Have you ever heard of them before?” Geoff asked while sipping his whiskey. 

He shook his head slowly, “Trust me, I’d remember idiots like that.”

The ringing of the doorbell had them all snapping to attention, guns drawn and safety off. Jack swore silently while she gathered a tip for the pizza girl and shot them all glares to lower their weapons. When she returned with pizza boxes in hand, she saw that the crew had spread around the living room to collapse on the various couches that decorated the space. 

“Well everyone,” Geoff said as they all dug in to their dinner. “Just get back to work. Now that we have more to go off of, we should be able to find something on them.”

-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-

"Alright people listen up," Commissioner Burns announced as he strode into the bullpen for the morning meeting between departments. Deputy Commissioner Sorola followed closely behind, arms crossed and looking grumpy as ever. "We have a problem on our hands, which may cause even more of a mess than the Fakes right now."

All chatter immediately stopped at this terrifying news as the collection of blue clad cops and suited detectives looked up from their coffee and donuts to give the commissioner their undivided attention. For as long as they could remember, the Fakes had been a focus of the LSPD, despite their utter failure to ever make a dent in the Fake Empire. To switch cases so suddenly like this meant that something big was going on.

"What Burnie - I mean Commissioner Burns - means is that there's a new crew in town." Sorola cut in before Burns could start ranting and scare the officers even more, "They don't seem to be working with the Fakes so we have that going for us, although it could easily devolve into a turf war. We also aren't taking all of you off the Fake case since that would just give them free reign of the city.”

“Right!” Burns cut back in, peering through his glasses at the assembled police force. “These ‘spooky people’ may be at the forefront of our investigation, but we can’t let Ramsey and his crew slip by. Who knows what chaos they could cause with unrestricted access to the city?”

“They already have unrestricted access.” Someone mumbled from the crowd. There were murmurs of agreement as each officer thought back to their most memorable encounters with the crazy crew. 

There was Officer Demarais who claimed that once, while walking through the park, Gavin Free fell into his arms holding a bunch of bananas and a piece of PVC pipe. He still had no idea what the hacker had been doing there, but he claims the confused squawks still echo through his nightmares. Detective Marquis told anyone who would listen that he responded as a rookie to the report of a bomb left by the Fakes only to find out it was made out of silly string canisters. They still exploded on him, but instead of being burnt to death he was just cleaning silly string gunk out of his clothes and hair for a week. Each person turned to their neighbor to commiserate with the overwhelming insanity that was the crew, but they were interrupted by the Commissioner. 

“Who said that?” Burns yelled, searching frantically through the faces gathered before him. “Was it you?” He pointed accusingly towards the back of the room at a group of rookies, who paled dramatically and started looking between each other at the attention from the Commissioner. 

“We’ve discussed the issue and have decided on a couple detectives and officers to pair up and put on the ‘2Spooky’ case.” Sorola plowed on, ignoring the antics of his superior and staring resolutely at his clipboard, which appeared from nowhere but was now clutched in his iron grip. “Commissioner, if you’re done scaring the rookies shitless, could you maybe tell the group what the plan moving forward is?”

Burns remained still for a few moments after Sorola finished speaking, glaring accusingly at the men and women before him who had started to shift uneasily. “Yup.” He popped, bouncing up from his aggressive stance and displaying a wide grin. “Deputy Sorola and I had a long discussion about the case and decided that we need at least four people to deal with the situation. We came to an agreement that Detectives Luna and Shawcross will be working with Officers Taylor and Gibson on the case.”

The four men mentioned stood together by the coffee machine, on the outskirts of the crowd that mingled before them. At hearing their names they all stood straighter and attempted to shake the sleep from their eyes in order to appear alert. 

“Come with us for a debriefing,” Sorola stated, trying to wrap up the meeting quickly.

“Wait, what about daily assignments?” Burns tried to extend the morning, mostly for the sake of irritating his deputy. “What if I don’t want to end the meeting yet? I’m the one in charge you know.”

“Everyone should continue their work from yesterday,” Sorola continued without listening to the Commissioner. “Luna, Shawcross, Taylor, Gibson, with us.” The Deputy turned and shuffled from the room towards the Commissioner’s office, leaving the rest of them to follow. 

“Alright everybody!” Burns clapped and smiled as some of the rookies jumped, still shaken up from earlier. “Have a good day, catch the crooks, and maybe dig something up on the Fakes if you want a promotion. Boys on the Spooky case, come on.” 

He turned on his heel and bounced down the hallway in the direction Sorola had gone. Luna and Shawcross filled their coffee mugs before following at a more subdued pace. Gibson and Taylor were left to weave through their beat cop friends, all eager to congratulate them on being singled out to work on the new case.

When they had all reassembled in the Commissioner’s office, the atmosphere relaxed. Burnie dropped into his chair and plunked his feet on the mahogany desk, crossing them at the ankle and loosening his tie. Gus lounged in the plush arm chair that somehow had made its way into the building, despite being far too fancy for a police department in the most crime riddle city. The detectives and officers were left to squeeze onto the gray couch covered in questionable stains, which comfortably fit two and uncomfortably now fit four. 

“So,” Burnie started, lacing his fingers over his stomach and staring at the squished cops. “I assume you guys saw the news last night?”

The four on the couch looked at each other before turning back to the Commissioner. Gus stared at them with what outsiders would consider boredom, but the officers who worked with him knew was languid amusement. 

“Yeah uh,” Detective Luna spoke up, patting Detective Shawcross on the shoulder. “I know Kerry and I were at the bar when it happened, they had the news channel on so we got to see it with subtitles but no sound.”

Officer Taylor nodded as well, “I was at home so I got to see the whole report, these guys look like a real piece of work.”

The only one who hadn’t spoken was Officer Gibson, who was looking sheepish shoved in the corner of the couch. At the look leveled at him by Burnie, he cleared his throat and spoke. “I was actually at the gym when it happened, so I had to catch the recap this morning on the radio during the drive to work.”

Burnie sighed and rolled his eyes, “At least you all know what’s going on. Some new asshole crew has decided to take their shot at the Fakes and if we aren’t careful they could take out the whole city.” Everyone sobered at Burnie’s serious tone. “We all know the Fakes are explosive on a good day, but when people try and invade their territory the violence escalates. I don’t think I have to remind you about what happened with FakeHaus?”

They all shook their heads, although Miles spoke up. “The FakeHaus situation was chaotic, but it ended peacefully. Didn’t the two crews end up coming together in the end? From what I recall, the Fakes decided to share their brand and set the new guys up in their own part of town.”

“That’s right,” Gus decided to jump in. “But 2Spooky is equally if not more insane than the Fake AH Crew.”

“Yesterday alone shows that they are prepared to commit to some crazy antics, and the last thing we need is two chaos causing crews.” Burnie sighed and dropped his feet from the desk. “That’s where you four come in. I want you investigating where these guys came from, what they want, who they are, anything that could help us bring them in and stop their reign of crime before it gets too bad. We never get anything to stick on the Fakes but these guys are new and untested, they should be easy enough to take down. The new ones are always cocky.” 

Miles and Gus shared a significant look while the others nodded at Burnie. They had been talking for some time, and midday was swiftly approaching. 

“Alright well,” Blaine said, trying to wiggle his way off the couch. “I guess we should get started.”

“We can come up with a great plan of attack.” Kerry excitedly bounced off the couch and moved towards the door.

“Come on K-T,” Miles exclaimed while pulling Kyle off the couch, “Let’s go catch a crew.”

Kyle laughed with Miles as he found himself carrying most of the other man’s weight while he leaned on his shoulder. The four young cops exited the Commissioners room and went to commandeer one of the many meeting rooms where they could start plotting. 

Gus and Burnie watched them go, amusement on their faces. Once the two were left alone, Burnie’s face fell serious once again.

“Do you have any idea who could be behind these guys?” Gus shook his head slowly, eyes on his phone. “Well whoever it is,” Burnie continued. “I want you to monitor those boys, see what they come up with. Geoff may be running the strongest crew I’ve seen in a while, but he can be ruthless when threatened and I want to keep the bloodshed to a minimum.”

“You know with his Vagabond that’s nearly impossible.” Gus mumbled, looking up at his old friend from across the desk.

“Yeah I know,” Burnie sighed. “I just don’t want those boys getting hurt.”

“Don’t worry,” Gus patted the Commissioner as he stood and made his way to the door. “I think they can handle themselves.”

-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-

A few week went by and no one had found anything on 2Spooky, although the crew continued to be an active nuisance to the city. The Fakes were at their wits end. Never before had a crew been able to so thoroughly thwart them. Jack had started buying alcohol in bulk just to keep up with the amount of frustrated drinking that was occurring in the penthouse, and Ryan had taken to spending more and more nights anonymously on the street only to return in the early hours of the morning, covered in blood.

The cops weren’t doing much better and Commissioner Burns was getting antsy. The longer they spent on the 2Spooky case, the longer the Fakes were unmonitored. He was also distressed about how good these supposed rookies were at evading capture. Even the Fakes got caught at least once a week, even if they seemed to wiggle their way out of custody more than should be possible. The station had become a pressure cooker of anticipation, everyone eagerly awaiting a break in the case.

This was why everyone was so excited when Michael ‘Mogar’ Jones was taken in by Officer Dunkelman for littering. Despite having no connection to 2Spooky, the presence of a Fake in the building was a guarantee for some sort of entertainment. What made the situation better for the rest of the officers was that Detective Luna was taking time off the 2Spooky case to interrogate the man. Regardless of his assignment, Luna had a history with Jones and would always be there to lead the questioning.

“So, Jones,” Miles was barely through the door before he started talking. He conspicuously held Michael’s file, which was really only one of three that the cops had on him, and was leafing through it. He may have been looking at the file, but all of his attention was on the angry criminal handcuffed to his table. “What was it this time, littering? Seems like a step down from the homicide that brought you in last time. Tell me, what are the Fakes up to now?”

Michael groaned and sunk down in the hard metal chair of the interrogation room. “Man fuck _off_ Luna, we aren’t doing nothing.” 

Miles snorted at the young man’s antics. “Somehow I find that hard to believe. We’ve hardly heard a peep out of you in the past two weeks and now you’re in here for being a litter bug. Even the Vagabond’s murder breaks don’t last this long so tell me, what are you guys planning?”

The sullen silence that emanated from Michael was long enough for Miles to sink into the chair opposite the criminal with an exasperated sigh. He slowly steepled his fingers in front of his mouth as he analyzed Michael in silence. Michael for his part was glaring angrily at a corner of the floor and doing his best to ignore the detective.

After a few minutes, Miles broke the silence that had settled on the room. “Listen Jones, we’ve done this run around more times than I can count. I see you more than I see my own apartment, so cut me a break and give me something before you’re bailed out.”

Michael sat up and bared his teeth angrily, leaning across the table in an attempt to invade the detective’s space. “You aren’t listening Luna, we’ve got nothing going on. What you should be doing is looking for this new crew that’s popped up instead of harassing us.”

“Ah, so that’s where this hostility is coming from,” Miles drawled with faux arrogance, ignoring the fact that Michael was nearly always hostile around him. “You feel threatened by the unknown.”

“Like you know anything more than we do,” Michael snorted at the detective. “You’re just as clueless about 2Spooky as we are.”

Miles checked his watched and stood up, tucking the folder under his arm and moving towards the door. “That’s where you’re wrong Jones.” At the befuddled expression on the man’s face, Miles elaborated. “I know more about 2Spooky than you could ever imagine.”

Michael opened his mouth to yell at the retreating detective, but he was cut off by Miles. “It’s been about 15 minutes, someone is probably here to post your bail. I’ve enjoyed our chat just about as much as I ever do, same time tomorrow?” 

He exited the room before Michael could make an angry retort, although he could hear the man’s muffled shouts from the hallway. On his way down the hall he passed Officer Dunkelman, who was striding with a purpose carrying the keys to Michael’s handcuffs. 

“Someone post bail?” He asked innocently, mindful of the irritation written across the woman’s face.

“Yeah,” she grumbled, brushing past him quickly. “Pattillo’s here and she isn’t happy. Said something about raising her boys better than this, which I can only assume means she happily condones murder but littering crosses the line.”

Miles nodded, but the officer was already down the hall and entering the interrogation room to free Michael. Miles considered waiting around for one last chance to bait the anger management portion of the Fake AH Crew, but decided to get back to his own assignments. Besides, he didn’t want to rile the man up too much, they may need him later.

Michael was guided out of the interrogation room by the angry cops and then handed over to perhaps an angrier Jack. To the cops, she probably seemed her usual stoic self, but Michael knew how to read the signs and all of them pointed to him being in deep shit.

She stayed quiet as she stiffly led him out of the station and deposited him into one of the less conspicuous vehicles the crew owned. Michael had mere moments between when his door was slammed in his face and when Jack entered the driver’s side, but those were the seconds he took to prepare himself for her tirade.

Jack started the car in silence and pulled out of the station parking lot calmly, mindful of the various cops in the building monitoring them both on the security cameras and through the windows. When they hit the highway, however, she let loose.

“What were you thinking Michael? After we’ve so carefully been lying low for these past few weeks you go and fuck it up by littering of all things? Fucking littering?” Her voice was getting louder and higher as she continued yelling. "And in front of a cop? Don’t try and make up some bullshit excuse because we all know what every cop looks like and Dunkelman is one of the most identifiable, so tell me, what the fuck were you thinking?”

“Jack,” Michael mumbled, cowering in his seat from her anger. People always thought he was the angry one, and he could be, but went Jack got pissed she definitely took the title. “Jack it was on purpose.”

“Why the fuck did you get arrested on purpose, how does that help us at all?” She asked incredulously.

“Jeremy and I were assigned to the cops, remember?” Michael implored. “We had to find out what they know. Of course, we couldn’t find anything in the system and just asking nicely was out, so I had to go ask in person.”

By this point Jack looked calmer and like she was listening to Michael’s reasoning. They had also reached the penthouse, and decided to continue the discussion with the rest of the crew that was waiting eagerly for Michael’s return.

Upon stepping out of the elevator, Michael saw the four other crew members assembled at the kitchen table in what looked like an intervention. Jeremy clearly hadn’t told them what was going on, content to let Michael diffuse this bomb. Geoff had a steely look in his sleepy eyes, signaling his displeasure at the situation. Ryan looked equally calm, but he was tossing one of his throwing knives in a game of catch to distract himself. Gavin looked like his usual smug self, just happy that Michael was the one getting in trouble for once.

“Before you can yell at me,” Michael began, arms raised to stop their words. “This was all for a reason.”

Geoff huffed and took a drink from his glass of whiskey, kicking the chair in front of him and nodding at it in the universal signal for ‘take a seat’.

Michael shot Jeremy a look and settled into the chair. “You told us to find out what the cops know, so that’s what we were doing. I had to find a way into the station where I could bring 2Spooky up and not get instantly shut down.”

The crew was looking much less hostile at this point, which made Michael feel better. “So what did you find?” Geoff finally asked.

Michael took a deep breath and exhaled with irritation. “Well from the way the rest of the station was acting, they don’t know shit. Everyone I passed had this look of anticipation and tension like they haven’t caught break in forever, which is pretty much the same as us.”

“We figured Luna would do the interrogation,” Jeremy interjected into Michael’s story. “Seeing as you two have some kind of history that makes him hate you but also claim you as ‘his’ criminal. He’s also assigned to the 2Spooky case so he would be the best bet for getting information out of. Were we right?”

Michael nodded but rubbed his temples in exhaustion. “Yeah we were right, I got to have one of my great interrogations with Detective Luna, but I found out almost nothing.” He took a swig out of Geoff’s glass but stopped anyone from speaking up and interrupting him. “He did say something fucking ominous as shit though. I told him he should be focusing on the newbies, and not on us, and he said something like he already knows all about 2Spooky. Which, you know, sounds like typical cop posturing, but it seemed like he really did know more. He wouldn’t let me ask about what he meant either, he just made his escape when he knew bail was posted.”

“How the fuck could Luna know about the crew when the rest of the station knows nothing?” Ryan asked from his side of the table.

“He is assigned to the case,” Jack spoke up, “So it make sense that only those on the case would know about the crew.”

“Yeah but that doesn’t make any sense.” Michael responded. “I caught a brief glimpse of Burns in his office and he looked as worn down as you do Geoff. If they found anything, they would definitely report it to him and Burns wouldn’t look like he hasn’t slept in weeks.”

“Well at least you tried,” Geoff said with a grimace. “Don’t go down there again, you and Luna could play cat and mouse for days without getting anywhere. See what you can get on their online files okay?”

Michael and Jeremy nodded, already thinking of any possible files they could have overlooked in their initial sweep through the police database. 

“Ugh this is so frustrating,” Gavin exclaimed from his seat. “I can’t find anything on them but somehow the cops know everything? Not to mention the fantastic press Risinger has been giving them for the past month. You’d think they were his best friends from the way he writes about them.”

“I know Gavver,” Geoff comforted his brit. “You just have to keep at it. All of us do. Let’s get back to work.”

-.-.-.-.-.-

That night, the cops assigned to 2Spooky were staying late at the station. They watched Burnie leave an hour or so earlier and the rest of the officers at the station had quickly emptied out after that. Now that they were alone, Miles was eager to tell them what he had learnt from his time with Michael.

“Alright boys, listen up.” Miles stood in the small room they had commandeered for the 2Spooky case. The other 3 turned to look at him from chairs positioned around the conference table and white boards. “So you all know I talked to Michael earlier today to see if the Fakes know anything about 2Spooky.”

“Really?” Kyle interrupted, leaning back in his chair and crossing his hands behind his head. “I thought it was just because you two have a sordid history that no one likes to mention.”

“Shut up Kyle!” Miles squealed, quickly turning red, while the others tried futilely to stifle their laughter. 

Kyle shrugged at his friend and smiled. “Hey, I’m just saying what everyone’s thinking.”

Miles spluttered for a minute before gathering his wits and glaring at his still giggling friends. “No, what everyone’s thinking is wrong. There’s nothing sordid about my history with Michael… I mean Jones. Anyway, do you guys want to hear about the Fakes or not?” That got them to settle down and focus on Miles again. “Alright. So from the way Jones was acting and what he said, the Fakes have got nothing.”

“Nothing?” Kerry asked, leaning forward and cocking his head as if he hadn’t heard correctly. “As in, they haven’t found anything. They don’t know who’s in the crew, if the crew has any connections, who leads it…nothing?”

“Nope.” Miles popped with a smug grin. “He even called his crew clueless.”

“What about Free?” Kerry continued, looking confused. “He’s the best hacker in the country, surely he’s found something. Some thread of information in the many dark databases and government organizations he has footholds in.”

Miles slowly shook his head and reveled in the complete shock that had silenced the other men. It was rare that the Fakes were out of the loop on something, and they were going to bask in it for as long as possible.

“Well that’s a relief.” Blaine stood up and started gathering his things. “At least we don’t have to worry about the Fakes for a while. Hopefully they stay in the dark until everything’s settled, I’d hate for them to get involved.”

“Where are you going?” Kyle asked. “It’s still early.”

Blaine looked at the other’s confused faces with confusion of his own. “Guys, its Friday.” At their blank expressions he looked put out. “Come on, you have to know my routine by now!” They remained unresponsive. “Alright assholes, for the last time. I work out in the evenings on Fridays because the gym opens late in the morning.”

“Ahhhh,” they all remarked together, nodding their heads in agreement. “I totally knew that,” Kerry piped up from the back.

“Oh fuck you guys,” Blaine complained good-naturedly and hurried out the door.

When he was gone, the others turned to each other. “I should be going too,” Kerry said, stretching as he stood up. “Chinese food isn’t going to order itself.” And he followed Blaine’s path out of the room.

“Hey K-T, you down for some action tonight?” Miles asked now that he and Kyle were alone. “I know you have nothing better to do.”

Kyle sighed and stood from his chair. “What did you have in mind? We can’t get too wild, today was excitement enough.”

“Oh nothing much,” Miles remarked, throwing his arm around Kyle’s shoulders and guiding him from the room. “Just some new orders. Boss wants us to spray the Cheesemaster tag around the city to get some popularity and recognition for himself for organizing our idiot selves into a passable crew.”

“I think Jon’s got it covered on the popularity front,” Kyle laughed but allowed Miles to drag him along. “Did you see his most recent headline? _2Spooky, 2 cool._ He better be careful or someone will start making connections.”

“Nahh,” Miles replied, making a flippant gesture with his hand. “Jon can handle himself. We should probably call Cole though, he’ll want to be involved.”

Kyle sighed, in the time it took them to discuss it they had made the quick trip through the station and reached Miles’ car. The two piled in and Miles started the drive to his apartment where their supplies were kept. “Yeah I’ll call him. Should I just tell him to meet us at your place?”

Miles hummed in agreement with Kyle’s statement and focused on driving. Besides the quick call Kyle made, the ride passed in comfortable silence and it didn’t take long for them to reach Miles’ modest apartment. Of course Cole was already parked out front in his gear, ready to go. 

“Sup guys!” He called out as Miles pulled up.

“Hey buddy,” Kyle replied while exiting the car and Miles went in for a hug from his lanky friend. “We need to grab some shit then we can go, Miles will fill you in on the way.”

Cole nodded and followed the two men into the building and onto the elevator. They rode in silence to the 3rd floor and down the hall, but entering Miles’ apartment opened the floodgates to Cole’s rambling. 

“So what are we doing tonight? We haven’t done anything all week. Where are the others? If it’s just us we can’t be doing anything too big, Boss wouldn’t send just 3 of us out on something important. Or he would. It depends on how he’s feeling. Do you have any Whiskey? Vodka? Rum? Hell, I’d even take some Tequila right now.”

“Cole, Shut up.” Miles called from his position hunched over in the closet, digging out his gear. “There’s a new bottle of rum above the refrigerator, don’t make a mess.”

Cole went searching for the alcohol while the two policemen worked on changing, it simply wouldn’t do for a suited detective and officer in police blues to be seen out committing crimes. Miles shrugged on his Umbreon suit while Kyle threw on a leather jacket over his tight, video game themed t-shirt. They grabbed a few pairs of aviator glasses from the bin full of them in the closet as well as a duffle bag full of yellow spray paint and went looking for their alcohol motivated friend.

They found him three shots in and pouring another. “Alright,” Miles swooped in, snatching the bottle out of Cole’s hands. “That’s enough for now, we can finish this tonight when we’ve done our job.”

“What job is that?” Cole slurred from the table, reaching for the bottle Miles was holding just out of his reach.

“Boss gave me some orders, so listen up.” That got Cole to stop reaching and actually sit in one of the chairs around the table. “He designed a tag for us to put up around the city and three locations to hit. All prominent places where the tag should be quickly found and that will generate enough talk that we get some publicity.”

“Three places?” Cole asked innocently. “Just three?”

“Yeah, why?” Kyle questioned from the doorway, bag of spray paint hefted onto his shoulder.

Cole took a deep lungful of air and stood up quickly enough to screech his chair back and send it tumbling to the floor. “Oh BABY a triple!” He yelled, swaying forward to swipe the bottle of rum from Miles’ hand in his distraction and take a swig.

“Cole, shut UP!” Miles yelled back, wresting with the man for the bottle. “You can have more later, also don’t shout.”

Kyle rolled his eyes at their antics and set the bag on the floor so he could enter the fray. It would be another twenty minutes before they actually put the alcohol away and made it out the door, and another twenty after that to find the first location for the tag.

“Alright,” Miles said as he pulled up outside the airport. “K-T, want to deactivate those security cameras?”

“You got it,” he muttered, typing away at his phone to quickly shut off the few cameras pointed at their destination. “Deactivating in 5, be ready to run in and out because they’ll only be down for a couple minutes. And… go!”

Cole and Miles tumbled from the car, a can of paint in each hand. Miles, the more artistic of the two, started spraying his best wedge of Swiss Cheese, while Cole sprayed block letters below it which reach CHEESEMASTER. Both images were in an obnoxious yellow that was sure to linger even after the graffiti was scrubbed off. Miles also pulled out a can of blue and sprayed 2SPOOKY over the cheese, just to make sure the public knew the connection between the two.

Kyle called out from the car that they had to get out of range before the cameras came back online, and the two scampered back to the loitering car. Miles hurried to drive them to the next location, where they repeated their system of camera hacking and spraying, this time on one of the Ferris wheel carriages on the pier. 

Their last stop was the Maze bank in the center of town, which would be their trickiest tag. Kyle got the cameras down and Miles and Cole sprayed the glass windows on the bottom floor of the tower, but Cole couldn’t resist shouting “Oh Baby a Triple!” once it was completed.

Luckily, despite Miles’ high-pitched screaming, no one came to investigate and the three were able to bid a hasty retreat back to Miles’ apartment. Since the next day was Saturday, and neither Kyle nor Miles had to report in to the station until the afternoon, the three were able to stay up drinking well into the night.

When they woke up groggily at 10 in the morning, it was to the news report displaying their new art. They quickly unmuted the television to hear what the blonde reporter in the newsroom was saying.

“This morning it was to the shock of the citizens of Los Santos that the newest gang, 2Spooky, has struck again. It appears that they have painted graffiti across three major locations in the city, although there is a current search for any other tags that may have been missed. This type of action seems out of place for the crew’s usual flashy antics, and the police are investigating whether this is truly the action of 2Spooky. No matter what they discover, it appears that whoever has spray-painted these messages wants the city and its people to know that 2Spooky is connected to the ‘Cheesemaster’, although who this figure is remains a mystery. This was Ashley Jenkins with the news. Now to Meg Turney with the weather.” 

“Well,” Miles said when she was done speaking and the screen switched to another woman in front of a weather map. “It seems like we were successful, I’ll call the Boss and let him know.”

The other two nodded, lethargic in their hungover state. While Miles left to make calls, the other two quickly fell back asleep, Cole splayed on the floor and Kyle face down on the lumpy couch in the meager living room.

-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-

“What the fuck is this shit?” Michael’s irritated screeching echoed through the penthouse and drew the attention of the other crew members who were still in the process of waking up. He had just switched on the news and was staring incredulously at the images on the screen. “It’s not enough to pull off heists, they have to start marking our territory now? Geoff, get in here!”

Geoff shuffled into the room behind the rest of his crew, which had come running at Michael’s distress. He watched blankly as the reporter displayed the ‘Cheesemaster’ tag and discussed the cops’ theory that it was in fact an authentic 2Spooky creation. 

“I can’t believe this,” Jeremy complained as he dropped heavily into the closest couch. “Who do these guys think they are?”

“They’re getting too comfortable,” Ryan replied, staring darkly at the screen. “And our failure to find anything on them isn’t helping. They’ve been around for a month and we’ve made no progress, which makes them feel safe enough to challenge us.”

Jack cracked her knuckles and moved to start a pot of coffee. “I think it’s time we stop laying low, we look submissive. Like we’re just letting them come in and take our territory.”

The crew turned to look at Geoff, who was stroking his beard with a look of concentration. Finally he sighed and rubbed a hand over his face. “Alright, here’s what we’re going to do. They marked three locations, we’re gonna blow up those three marks…wipe their tags off the map.”

The Fakes perked up at the sound of demolition and destruction. Geoff looked at the anticipation on the faces of his crew and smiled before handing out assignments. “Jack and Jeremy, you two hit the airport. Gavin, you’re with me on the pier. Michael, I trust you can handle the Maze bank alone?”

The pyromaniac nodded enthusiastically and went running to gather his best explosives. Ryan had his arms crossed and was glaring at Geoff. He opened his mouth to rant but before he could start, Geoff cut him off.

“Ryan, I have a more important job for you, one that involves your fastest car and a high wanted level.” This seemed to raise the Vagabond’s spirits as his face split into a creepy but pleased grin, made all the more disturbing by the skull painted across his face.

Miles and Kyle were just arriving at the police station when they were grabbed by Blaine and Kerry and pushed into their little conference room. They had a television in there, which was constantly turned to the news, and the four settled into their seats to watch Ashley Jenkins try and describe what was happening on the screen. 

A minor footnote to the news was that the Cheesemaster marks had been utterly destroyed by what could only be the Fake AH Crew, but the major news story was the ongoing car chase between the police and what was thought to be the Vagabond. 

There was a police chopper camera that the news station had tuned into as they chased the obnoxiously green car through a series of random twists and turns through the city. A screaming collection of cop cars followed closely behind, but never got close enough to cut the Fake off or shoot him down.

“What are they doing?” Kyle asked, leaning forward to get a better look at the screen. “They’ve been under the radar for a month and now a pointless car chase?”

“Forget about that,” Miles whined. “They destroyed the 2Spooky tags. That’s just rude.”

Blaine and Kerry shushed them as the car chase seemed to be coming to an end. The Vagabond’s car disappeared into a tunnel, but didn’t emerge on the other side. The fleet of cars following him had gone racing into the tunnel and a moment later there was a violent explosion that shot smoke back through the entrance. 

The chopper quickly pulled up and began searching for the criminal’s car, but he was nowhere in sight. There was no sign of the elusive Vagabond or his distinctive car, but it was safe to assume he made it out somehow. 

The camera screen went back to the newsroom where reporter Jenkins was listening intently to her earpiece. “We have new information regarding the high speed chase which recently came to an end between the police and the Fake AH Crew. It seems the chase was less random than previously thought, triggered by a convenience store robbery and injury of the responding officer.”

The newsroom was replaced with a map of the city that had a green line drawn through the roads, marking the path the chase had taken. To the shock of the police watching, the path drew a jagged but clear image of the Fake AH Crew logo, and it hit every point 2Spooky had tagged.

“It seems like the presence of 2Spooky in Fake AH territory has devolved into an all-out gang war. We here at the newsroom can only recommend that civilians try and stay out of their way as the two settle their differences. Hopefully the LSPD will get a handle on the situation before it tumbles out of control.”

The four in the room muted the screen and looked at each other in silent shock. Never had they thought the Fakes would take to one-upmanship. Anger, yes. A response of some sort, of course. But destroying their cheeky tags? That was unexpected. So was the GPS artwork.

“Officers,” Deputy Commissioner Sorola threw the door open and ignored the loud impact it made with the wall. “We need to talk about the situation, I assume you’ve seen the news. I think it’s time we talked with the Fakes.”

-.-.-.-.-.-.-

The week following the Fake AH response to 2Spooky, the crew had taken to addressing the Fakes through the news. They continued appearing and pulling their heists, but they now shouted messages to the Fakes, which were delivered through the reporters cameras. Geoff had yet to issue a response to these attempts at communication, but they were reaching the point where it would have to be addressed. 

Geoff was settled at the kitchen table for once, hunched over his bottle of bourbon, when his crew appeared in the doorway to the living room. 

“They’re on the news again,” Michael huffed, crossing his arms and staring at Geoff. “Still shouting dumb shit at us, this time it’s ‘the Cheesemaster sends his regards’, which makes absolutely zero fucking sense.”

“What the fuck is a Cheesemaster?” Jeremy questioned while leaning on the doorframe. Gavin made noises of confusion that agreed with the shorter man’s assessment.

With a heavy sigh Geoff started to reply. “I have no idea dude. Who the fuck thinks of shit like the Cheesema –“

The crew looked at him with confusion and some amount of worry. “Geoff? Buddy? You alright?” Jack asked quietly while they all watched the gears turn in their boss’ head.

“Holy dicks dude! The Cheesemaster!”

Ryan’s patience was wearing thin. Frustration from over a month of dealing with the encroaching crew gave him a short fuse that even inconspicuous murder couldn’t solve. “Yeah, what about it? It’s gibberish.” He bit out.

Geoff stood from the table and nearly knocked his chair over in his excitement. “No no, see, I know this guy, we used to be best friends and we’d get wasted together all the time. Like seriously every night for a while there.”

They all sighed as Geoff started telling his story. “Geoff, now isn’t the time to reminisce.” Jack tried to diffuse the situation by acting as the voice of reason before anyone could strangle him from impatience. 

“No listen to this, it’s important. We’d get trashed like every night, and then one night we were just sitting in my apartment, drunk as dicks, and he pulled this gallon of milk out of my fridge that I forgot I even had.”

“How long is this story” Gavin whispered to the others in an attempt at subtlety. “Because we still need to find this crew.”

“ANYWAY,” Geoff continued, ignoring his crew. “I assume he got the idea from somewhere, probably one of our earlier conversations that I can’t remember. But he pulled out this jug milk, swayed over to the couch we were laying on, and slammed it down in front of me while slurring ‘Let’s make cheese’. Of course naturally I’m confused and ask him to elaborate but he just kept repeating ‘let’s make cheese. I’m gonna eat it, you’re gonna eat it, I am the Cheesemaster.’” 

Geoff finished speaking and there was silence among the crew as they stared at him in shock before looking at each other to confirm they’d heard that right. Geoff held a triumphant pose, with his arms outstretched and a wide grin across his face while the information sunk in. It took minutes of silence for the crew to absorb what he’d just told them and then to react to it with a series of disbelieving snorts.

“You mean to tell us that this whole time we’ve been looking for info on this crew you’ve know the ringleader!?” Michael’s anger was the first response to make itself known. His voice cracked as it shot up an octave in his ranting and incredulity.

“Geoff seriously this is information we could have used months ago.” Jack took over calmly, trying to sooth the angry demolitions expert next to her while conveying disappointment at her boss.

“Hey don’t blame me dude.” Geoff raised his arms in defense to ward off anymore shouting. “We were both completely drunk. I’m actually shocked I even remember that happening.”

Michael rolled his eyes and looked expectantly at Geoff. When there was no other information forthcoming from his boss he gave an exasperated, “Well!”

“Well what?” Geoff asked innocently.

“Well who is it!?” The Crew chorused as one, for once all on the same page.

“Ohhhh yeah.” Geoff laughed, picking up his forgotten class of bourbon and taking a slow drink. “He’s the Deputy Commissioner of the police department, Gus Sorola.” 

“Ha- Fucking- Ha Geoff,” Jeremy sarcastically commented. “You expect us to believe that you’re old drinking buddies with Cranky Gus Sorola? The same detective who has you arrested or brought into the station at least once a month?”

“Nah,” Relaxing into his chair again, Geoff kicked his feet up on the table, which Jack would have scolded him for if she wasn’t so distracted. “He just arrests me so we can catch up, like old times. It’s hard to find a time or place to meet up when you’re on opposite sides of the law. Have any of your fuckers heard about the old RvB crew that used to run this city?”

“Of course we have,” Gavin said, looking affronted. “We don’t live under a rock. Also, you tell us all the time about how you were part of it, codename: Grif.”

“Yeah well there were other people in the crew, dickhead.” Geoff spoke as if he were talking to a child. “Who do you think was in the crew? If you’ve heard of ‘Grif’ you’ve heard of ‘Simmons’, who was Gus.”

Michael interjected in a tone of disbelief. “No fucking way Detective Sorola was your butt-buddy Simmons. I’ll believe that when I see it. And why haven’t you told us who the other members of the RvB crew were until now?”

“They like their privacy.” Was the only response Geoff would give to the question, as well as. “I will say they’re all prominent people you’ve heard of or met.”

“Why do you think Sorola decided to form a gang now?” Ryan spoke quietly from the back, absorbing this new information in stride. “It seems sudden, and also strange, to move in on our turf without contacting you since he knows you so well.”

“Well there’s really only one way to know for sure…” The considering tone of their boss’ voice brought the crew back under control. “I’m gonna have to ask him. I’m sure he’s got the same address, or Gavin could look it up for me. Stopping by the station probably isn’t the smartest move but I could stop by the bars he frequents, although this would be a conversation best had in private.”

The crew dispersed to work off their irritation at the man they called their boss. Geoff was left to contemplate how he would reach out to Gus and find out if he really was the so called ‘Cheesemaster’ behind the newest crew.

It took him an hour, but Geoff found Gus’ new apartment since he had apparently moved some time in the past few years. Gavin had refused to help so he’d had to do it himself, but he made it just as the final rays of sunlight were disappearing behind the city buildings.

He only had to knock once before the door was flung open and Gus was looking at him without an ounce of surprise on this face. “Took you long enough cockbite.”

“Oh yeah, because I’m supposed to remember everything you’ve ever said while drunk.” Geoff complained as he was ushered quickly out of the hallway and into a well-furbished living space. 

“Well no,” Gus conceded. “But it was one of our more memorable nights. I think I chugged a bottle of vodka that night as well.”

“Heh, yeah you did.” Geoff smiled into the distance as he was caught in his memories before snapping out of it. “But anyway, what’s with the life of crime? I thought you wanted out of the criminal lifestyle, you even tried to convert me once or twice.” He settled onto a comfortable couch and propped his feet on the antique coffee table in the center of the room.

“Ugh, let’s just say I’ve seen the error of my ways.” At the sight of Geoff’s happy grin, Gus hurried to stop anything he might say. “Your influence had no effect, it’s just that working at the station is so boring and there’s so much paperwork.”

“Sure buddy,” Geoff said with a smirk. “Now we just need to convince Burnie to convert and we’ll have the whole crew back together!”

Gus stared at him, face scrunched in confusion and looking at him like he was stupid. “I think you’re forgetting some people.” At Geoff’s blank look he continued with irritation in his voice. “Matt and Joel, you remember them right? Sarge and Caboose? I don’t think Matt has a criminal bone left in his body after we split and he decided to go straight.”

Geoff laughed, “Oh man, I forgot how out of the loop you are.” At the sight of anger mounting in Gus he continued. “Joel works for the stock trade doing some shady dealings, and he’s always good for providing financial support when I need it. Matt’s been running the entire RT syndicate for the past 5 years. I think he’s the highest part of the command structure, after all, he built it from the ground up.”

The shock on Gus’ face almost set Geoff laughing, but he held it in and waited for this new information to sink into his friend’s brain. “Seriously? And you guys never told me?” He finally questioned, offended at being left in the dark.

“Dude,” Geoff smiled. “You’re the one who went cops on us. Like we were going to tell you anything.”

“Man being a cop sucks,” Gus muttered as he went about collecting glasses and a bottle of his best whiskey. Geoff just hummed in agreement with his statement. “Alright,” Gus said as he put a full glass in front of his friend. “Get me a meeting with Matt so I can bring my crew into this syndicate. I assume your Fakes are part of it.”

“Yup,” Taking a deep swig from the glass, Geoff looked happily at his friend. “We were one of the first groups to sign on. I’m sure Matt will take your 2Spooky boys, you’ve done a lot while staying on the down low. Even we couldn’t find anything on you.”

“Well,” Gus smirked mischievously. “It helps when the investigation force assigned by the police is made up entirely of the crew.”

“Well done, I assume you put them on the assignment or convinced Burnie to choose them. What are you going to do about the cop job?” Geoff asked with interest. “Your crew can’t continue to work from within like they’ve been doing. They’ll arouse suspicion eventually.”

Gus looked unconcerned. “We’ll figure something out. I know Miles, Kerry, and Kyle are getting bored with the routine of it all but Blaine likes the uniform. I think he orders it a size too small on purpose. Cole’s ready to go since he doesn’t have any ties to the force, he just kind of shows up ready to do whatever. I actually don’t know what he does for a living. Jon has pretty weak connections to us and it would be hard to concretely prove that he's dirty, so he should be good to keep his journalist position while working with us. His stories have been getting us great publicity anyway so I definitely want him to keep that job.”

“Burnie’s not gonna like it, a whole department of his going crooked.” Geoff muttered, thinking of their old friend. He had refused to see Geoff for the past few years, never showing up to his interrogations or even walking through the halls if he knew the criminal was in the building. 

“Well fuck him.” Gus said plainly. “He knows what it was like and what he could have again.” 

“Think we should stage an intervention?” Geoff considered jokingly, but with a serious edge. “I’m sure we could budget some of Matt’s time and maybe lure Joel over with the promise of gold bars.” 

Gus just laughed and shot the idea down. If they needed to, that could be their last resort, but with Gus and an entire department going rogue Burnie might just come to his senses. 

“It’s good to have you back, buddy.” Geoff threw an arm around his friend and crushed him with a hug. “Call your boys. You should bring them around tomorrow so my crew can meet them on a level playing ground and not from the opposite side of an interrogation table for once.”

The two took the rest of the night to talk about old times and new plans, ideas for where to station Gus’ crew once they were enveloped into the syndicate, and predictions on just how poorly the meeting between crews would go the next day. They also finished the bottle of whiskey and laughed about how dumb the Cheesemaster moniker was, even though Gus stood by it.

The morning saw Geoff returning to the penthouse earlier than he usually woke up and with the thrumming of a hangover behind his eyes.

“Hey everyone,” He yelled into the vacant hallway. “Get your asses down here and look presentable, we’re meeting 2Spooky in an hour.”

Somehow his voice carried enough for those sleeping to wake up and for Ryan to glare angrily from the living room where he had been reading quietly, while Michael trudged over from the kitchen with a full mug of coffee. There was the sound of three doors being slammed open simultaneously as the others rushed for the two bathrooms available. The sound of squawking told Geoff that Gavin was the loser in the race to a shower.

“So I’m going to assume you were right about Gus?” Michael asked calmly and in stark contrast to his mood from the day before. At Geoff’s nod he continued. “Do we know who his crew members are?”

Geoff just smirked at him, knowing how angry the boy would be to find out. “Well that’s just something you guys will have to learn together, now isn’t it?”

Michael huffed and rolled his eyes. He went back into the kitchen to pour a mug of coffee for Ryan and bring it to the gent in the living room while they waited for the others to finish getting ready and scrambling around. 

An hour later and they were all presentable enough and gathered in the living room to welcome their rivals turned allies. Gavin and Jeremy were sharing a sofa while the others stood in eager anticipation. At the ringing of the doorbell, Geoff hurried to answer and usher his guests in.

The first through the doorway was Gus, leading his men. He nodded amiably at the collection of criminals who he’d seen come marching through the station on more than one occasion. The others shuffled in behind him, a combination of wariness and anticipation on their faces, unsure of how their presence would be received.

Miles was the last through the door, and at the sight of him Michael stepped forward, baring his teeth and growling. “Luna.”

“Jones.” Was Miles’ muted reply. Both the others from 2Spooky and Michael’s crew held their breath, waiting to see how this would play out. While they had all dealt with each other in some sense, those two had the longest running rivalry.

The tension was tangible enough to cut with a knife, and eventually Geoff broke the silence in his usual crude fashion. “Alright assholes, you’re going to be working closely together so you might as well clear the hostilities now. Throw some punches or suck each other’s dicks, I don’t care, but cool it.”

They both turned to look at him while he spoke, but quickly returned to the intense eye contact and subtle glaring. Michael shifted into a more considering stance, slowly letting the aggression seep away. “Did you really drink a bottle of whiskey and blow up the maze bank?” 

Miles sighed and rubbed a hand on the back of his neck. “Well I tried to, these losers wouldn’t let me.” He gestured vaguely at the rest of his crew, who was still standing awkwardly against the wall. 

“I think we can make something happen.” Michael said thoughtfully.

Miles laughed his infectious laughter, and even Michael joined in. “Jones, I think this is the beginning of a beautiful partnership.” 

“You got that right Luna.” Michael grinned and clasped his new friend’s shoulder. 

“Oh my god just use each other’s names.” Chorused the others, all exasperated with the anger and formality the two had held with each other in the many years they’d been on opposite sides of the law.

Once the tension between Miles and Michael was broken, conversation flowed easily between the dirty cops and the career criminals. Friendships were easily formed without the barrier of the badge and they quickly made plans for a joint heist in the future. 

Gus and Geoff stood together on the side of the group and smiled at each other. Their crews were coming together and hopefully, with the increased man power, they’d be able to run the city for a long time.

**Author's Note:**

> Hey! come chat with me at mythsandmythos.tumblr.com


End file.
